The book Bringing Down the House has long been one of my favorites, so it’s not a huge surprise that Sony’s film adaptation is the film equivalent of a blackjack. Produced by and featuring Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey, 21 has delivered an $8.2M opening day, and Sony will finish the weekend with a stack of chips totaling an estimated $23.39M.

21 is based on Ben Mezrich’s account of the life of a former MIT student and card-counter named Kevin (real name Jeffrey Ma). I met Kevin or Jeffrey soon after the book became a bestseller, and the first time I interviewed him on my ESPN radio show, he didn’t give his name because he still feared for his safety. After all, the guy was part of an operation that won millions of dollars from the casino industry. I talked with Ma on my radio show, The Steve Mason Show, back in February on radio row at Super Bowl 42. This is fascinating stuff. If you’d like to hear the conversation, here’s a link.

The #2 spot for the day and for the weekend goes to Horton Hears a Who (Fox), which will score another nice weekend hold. Horton has cracked the $100M mark with a strong 3rd Friday of $5M, and the CGI animated Dr. Seuss adaptation will wrap the 3-day with an estimated $17.9M, pushing its new domestic cume to nearly $118M.

MGM/Weinstein’s Superhero Movie, which used a clever viral Tom Cruise spoof to spread the word, debuted to a so-so $3.3M. That’s less than half the opening day business of last year’s Epic Movie ($6.8M) and January’s Meet the Spartans ($6.8M), so it appears that this genre’s appeal is waning. Still, Superhero Movie should have $8.75M banked by Sunday night.
One of the major surprises of the weekend is the staggering drop for Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns (Lionsgate). After a solid $20.1M opening, the film was expected to hold well, as has been the case for other Perry films. Meet the Browns, however, grabbed only $2.3M on its 2nd Friday, and it will likely finish the weekend with about $7.65M, which would be a 64% drop.

Drillbit Taylor (Paramount) will likely hold off Shutter (Fox) for the 5th spot this frame. Both films generated an estimated $1.9M on Friday, but the Owen Wilson comedy will likely finish the 3-day with about $5.8M, compared to $5.6 for the horror holdover.

There were 2 other new wide releases. The first is Stop Loss (Paramount/Dreamworks), written and directed by Oscar winner Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry). Expectations were low given its Iraq War theme, but the film has performed slightly better-than-expected with $1.65M on Friday at just 1,291 locations for a $1,278 Per Theatre Average. Buoyed by positive reviews, this low budget drama should manage $4.65M or so for the weekend.

The news was less positive for Run Fatboy Run (Picturehouse), directed by David Schwimmer. Despite opening on 1,133 screens, the offbeat comedy, co-written and starring the always-funny Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead), limped to only $675,000 on opening day. That will translate to a disappointing $2M or so.

Some interesting new specialty titles show up on the Top Per Theatre Average list. Leading the way is Chapter 27 (Peace Arch Releasing), which opened on 1 screen, the Nuart in Los Angeles. Jared Leto plays John Lennon assassin Mark David Chapman in this film written and directed by JP Schaefer. Chapter 27 had a huge opening day of $5,881, and conservatively, I think it will likely score a $15,000 weekend.

Gay-themed movie A Four Letter Word (Ebrem Entertainment) sold $3,906 in tickets at the Clearview Chelsea Cinema in Manhattan, and it will likely top $11,000 for the weekend. Also scoring well are the quirky doc Hats Off (Canobie Films), the Italian film My Brother is an Only Child (Thinkfilm), Priceless (IDP Films), starring Audrey Tatou, and the new Michael Caine/Demi Moore caper film Flawless (Magnolia). Here’s an early rough estimate for 3-Day PTA Top 10.